Lawyers for Rubin “Hurricane” Carter yesterday angrily rejected charges that the controversial movie about the boxer’s life makes a hero out of a cold-blooded killer.

They declared that any careful investigation of the evidence would show that Carter was innocent of the triple-murder for which he served 19 years before his conviction was overturned.

“It’s a sad day when, after all these years, officials in the state of New Jersey cannot say, ‘We made a horrendous mistake,'” said lawyer Lewis Steel.

He and fellow attorneys Myron Beldock and Leon Friedman were responding to charges Tuesday by families of the murder victims that the movie is inaccurate and that Carter is a killer.

Beldock said the families had been misled by the authorities who refuse to admit they made a mistake.

“People whose memories and understanding have been clouded by pain are … subjective,” he said.

The lawyers said the investigation into the triple slaying in a Paterson bar, for which Carter, 63, and co-defendant John Artis were imprisoned, was tainted by racism and corruption.

They released a copy of grand-jury testimony in which the chief investigator said witness descriptions of the suspects were “not even close to Artis and Carter.”

They also said that a shell found in Carter’s car had been planted from another shooting.

Carter and Artis were each found guilty of the killings at trials in 1966 and 1976.

The lawyers said that during the second trial, the prosecution introduced a racial-motive theory to hide their mistakes.

“The Hurricane,” which stars Denzel Washington, has come under fire for simplifying and fabricating the facts of the case.

It has also been criticized for giving most of the credit of freeing Carter to a group of Canadians who befriended him, not to the lawyers and journalists who worked on the case for years.

Beldock admitted the film has shortcomings, although it accurately portrayed Carter’s innocence.

“I think we all would have been a lot better off if the movie had more carefully investigated the evidence and shown how racial-motivation theory was used when the prosecution case was falling apart,” he said.